Bhusri’s return to the software company’s top job in human resources reflects the belief that only a founder with billions on the line and a personal legacy at stake has the unique vision and authority to steer the ship through difficult waters. And with majority voting control and operational authority as CEO, Bhusri has more power to make any tough changes he deems necessary. A closer look at Bhusri’s compensation package however suggests that it is also a recognition of how bleak the investor prognosis is for software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies.

To lure Bhusri back to the CEO job he left two years ago, Workday gave him a $138.8 million pay package consisting of cash and performance-based and restricted stock. More than HALF of the package, $75 million, will pay out only if Bhusri hits a series of undisclosed stock price targets over the next five years. Perhaps more telling is the other half: The roughly $60 million in restricted stock only requires Bhusri to stay at Workday for the next four years, without any performance targets.

With Wall Street bearish on SaaS companies, Workday effectively acknowledges the deep skepticism that even its founder-savior will face in successfully making the transition to the age of AI.

the AI is changing dramatically through business software stocks the past couple of weeks has helped wipe out about $40 billion in Labor Day’s value, halving its market cap from an all-time high of $80 billion. The stock has fallen 51% to nearly $150 a share from an intraday peak of $311.28 less than two years ago. This year alone, the stock is down 29% amid widespread bloodshed in the SaaS industry. Some SaaS companies, including Salesforce, ServiceNowand HubSpotall suffered double-digit declines in their stock prices.

“AI is changing how work is done and represents a bigger change than the move to the cloud 20 years ago,” Bhusri wrote in a LinkedIn posts the day after the news of the leadership change. “Just as we helped revolutionize business software when we built Workday, I believe we can once again lead the way in this era of AI.”

There was a lot at stake for Bhusri, even if he didn’t take back the reins. as executive chair in the SaaS giant over the past two years, Bhusri has seen the value of his more than 8-million share ownership stake nosedive from an all-time-high value of $2.6 billion in 2024, to about $1.3 billion. That’s a paper wealth write-off of nearly $1.3 billion in less than two years.

20 years of decision making data and 68% voting control

Bhusri may have more experience leading a company than the average founder. Bhusri ORGANIZED Day worked with best friend and mentor Duffield in 2005 before the two joined forces as co-CEOs in 2009. In the years since, Bhusri has served as sole CEO after handing over the Duffield presidency then share it again in August 2020 with co-CEO Luciano “Chano” Fernandez. After Fernandez announced his departure in December 2022, the board appointed ex-Sequoia Capital partner Carl Eschenbach to serve alongside Bhusri before Bhusri stepped into the role of executive chair in February 2024. Now, with Eschenbach out as CEO, Bhusri is back in the saddle as CEO and chairman.

As the software company turns the page, it has 20 years of decision-making data and process history that provides the opportunity to offer business-level intelligence to large customers, Bhusri wrote in his post.

The success of the working day is very dependent on Bhusri. The company operates with a two-class share structure, which means that shares traded on the open market, Class A shares, carry one vote each, while Class B shares are worth 10 votes each. Between cofounder Dave Duffield and Bhusri and their partners and a voting rights agreement that dates back to Workday’s 2012 IPO, the two cofounders control 68% of the voting power through their ownership of Class B shares.

Bhusri’s Linkedin post is full of optimism for the coming Labor Day but the numbers are more complicated. In the last three years, the company announced many phases of layoffs affecting thousands of jobs with the justification that they are part of a change, a shift towards AI, and a move to improve profits. In February, the company cut its workforce by nearly 7.5% as part of a restructuring plan and recorded $172 million in related charges.

While revenue has grown—Labor Day posted $8.4 billion in total revenue for fiscal 2025, up 16% from last year—that growth has slowed. Subscription revenue growth, for example, has slowed from 19% in fiscal 2024 to 17% in fiscal 2025, per the company’s annual report, with the most recent quarter showing 15%. In addition, the unknown impact of AI on SaaS companies is a brutal hangover in the sector, and the impact on Workday is very visible. The day of Bhusri’s return, the stock fell more than 6%, underscoring investor concern about the company and its challenges adapting to the age of AI.

Labor Day is missing the specific targets Bhusri must hit to see his $138.8 million pay package, but the disclosed terms say the $75 million award will be divided into tranches that require Bhusri to hit stock price targets—and remain on Labor Day. Returning the price to its peak means more than doubling the stock price in the next five years. Bhusri’s $60 million restricted stock award will vest over four years as long as Bhusri remains with the company. He will also collect a $1.25 million annual salary and an annual cash bonus of up to $2.5 million. He won’t be eligible for any more grants until 2027.

Eschenbach, the former CEO, who resigned from all of his roles and will now serve as a senior advisor, received a severance package worth approximately $3.6 million and will see the accelerated vesting of nearly 140,000 shares of restricted stock units that vest in the year following his departure. At $150 a share, Eschenbach’s equity is worth more than $20 million, and he will see the accelerated vesting of another 24,000 additional shares if performance metrics tied to the award are met. His “push-out score“an independent evaluation of the terms of his departure, ranked his departure a nine out of 10. The score suggested that “it seems very likely” Eschenbach felt forced to leave.

In one post on LinkedInEschenbach praised Bhusri and his former “Workers” on Labor Day.

“The opportunities ahead are greater than those behind,” wrote Eschenbach. “We’re at a huge turning point in AI, and there’s no one better than Aneel to lead Workday at this moment and drive the vision forward.”

Bhusri and Duffield’s agreement also means that if one of the co-founders becomes incapacitated or dies, the other will control both stakes. The dual-class structure is scheduled to expire in October 2032—one year after the Bhusri performance window closes in early 2031. That gives Bhusri a solid chunk of time to see if a co-founder in the CEO chair can make an impact on the stock price in the midst of an AI tidal wave.